Shea Patterson, the former No. 1-ranked quarterback in the 2016 recruiting class, has been given permission to pursue a transfer by Ole Miss.

And one report has Michigan as a possible landing spot.

According to 247sports, Patterson, a sophomore, has been given permission to contact and be contacted by other schools about the potential for a transfer. Per the report, Michigan is high on Patterson's interest list.

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Ole Miss was hit with NCAA sanctions on Friday that featured bowl bans for both the 2017 and 2018 seasons as well as probation (through 2020), scholarship reductions and fines. The NCAA has reportedly allowed all Ole Miss' rising seniors to transfer without an eligibility penalty due to the sanctions. Meaning they won't have to sit out a season.

Patterson is not a senior, so if standard rules remain applicable, he'd have to sit out a season before becoming eligible to play. However, some Ole Miss underclassmen are trying to get around that rule.

Sophomore safety Deontay Anderson has already petitioned to both Ole Miss and the Southeastern Conference that he be allowed to transfer with immediate eligibility due to his claim that he was misled about Ole Miss' NCAA sanction situation during his recruitment.

Anderson has maintained legal counsel in case he needs it in order to maintain eligibility. Thomas Mars, the attorney in question, told USA TODAY earlier this week that he's representing multiple players with similar requests. It's unclear if Patterson is one of them at this time.

Michigan is currently expected to have redshirt freshman Brandon Peters and true freshman Dylan McCaffrey back in 2018 as its lone returning scholarship passers. Wilton Speight and Alex Malzone have both announced graduate transfer decisions.

The Wolverines lost two starting quarterbacks (Speight and Peters) to injury this year and finished the regular season No. 112 in passing offense.

Michigan passing game coordinator Pep Hamilton indicated earlier this season that he'd love to be able to go into the 2018 offseason with an established passer under center, allowing that player to grow in concert with Michigan's young stable of receivers — including talented freshmen Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tarik Black.

"We had a quarterback competition between those (Speight and John O'Korn) throughout camp. When (Speight) was named the starter, he took the lion's share of the reps. When John became the starter, he took the lion's share of the (starter's) reps. Then, all of a sudden, Brandon was in the mix and he was getting more (first team reps)," Hamilton explained recently. "But he didn't have hardly as many reps banked as some of those guys from spring and training camp.

"So, ideally, we want to win our next two games and then go into the offseason with an established quarterback. (Then) we can build around that quarterback and get Tarik Black back on the field, get Donovan Peoples-Jones in great shape and ready to go and develop some of that timing and continuity."